The bitter row over job cuts at Italy’s Acciai Speciali Terni (AST) appears to have been resolved, after owner ThyssenKrupp (TK) and the unions reached a settlement on 3 December. This should ensure AST continues to operate reliably, following its gradual start-up this week after 44 days of strike action.

TK now has the workers’ approval for a workable industrial plan, which it is hoped will enable TK to re-establish sustainable profitability at AST, sources say. The German parent had stated ever since July, that it needed to streamline the specialty steelmaker in order to raise productivity for its cold-finished operations, and to cut costs in its hot-end.

Union sources tell Kallanish that a key breakthrough has been TK’s guarantee that it will make the necessary investments to keep both AST’s electric arc furnaces operating for four years.
, 
Instead of the original 550 redundancies, it is also agreed that 290 AST workers will be offered incentives to leave. TK will keep on all third-party contractors and service providers. The management has agreed to more generous night-shift and Sunday pay.
 
By early-November, AST’s ceo Lucia Morselli was meeting regularly with the unions, Italian ministers, and TK’s Group management board in Germany and the mood shifted, with TK beginning to soften its plan.